State Briefs: 10/27/07 and weekend

MIDWEST FOOD BANK EXPANDS, SCHOOL OPENS NEW LOCATION IN CHICAGO, NEW JUDGE FOR EX-FOOTBALL STAR and more.

Briefs: 10/27/04

Note to editors: Daily brief packages will not move Saturday or Sunday evenings.

Springfield institute to open school in Chicago
SPRINGFIELD – The Springfield-based Hope Institute for Children and Families in 2009 will open an elementary school in Chicago focusing on children with autism.

Hope Institute applied last spring to become part of the Chicago Public Schools Renaissance 2010 Program. Chicago Mayor Richard Daley initiated that program in an effort to inspire the school district to turn around its worst performing schools.

About 20 percent of the 500 or so students in kindergarten through fifth grade at Hope Chicago Campus will have special needs, said Lori Vallelunga, senior vice president of strategic development for the Hope Institute.

"Hope is based in Springfield, but we operate the statewide autism program for Illinois, so we have services in Chicago through that program and have been consulting in Chicago Public Schools classrooms for several years and also to 80 school districts throughout the state," Vallelunga said."Ours is the only school I know of with the autism focus.

A location for the school has not yet been chosen, she said, though organizers are hoping for a location near the University of Illinois at Chicago medical district on the near west side.

She said the Hope Institute will be collaborating with a charter school company in the Chicago Public Schools.
"We're very excited about it," Vallelunga said. "There is a lot of work to be done."

The food bank, which was founded four years ago to help feed the hungry locally, provides food monthly, at no cost, to more than 450 not-for-profit agencies in Illinois, Iowa, Indiana and Missouri.

Food bank director David Keiser said the agency has recently contracted to purchase a warehouse in Peoria for $1.55 million.

Keiser said about 20 agencies traveling from Indiana to Bloomington each month will soon be served at a 17,000-square-foot warehouse in Indianapolis that was donated to the food bank.

The Midwest Food bank distributes more than 23 semi-loads of food each month to various agencies. In 2006, it gave away more than $14 million worth of food.

Soulja Boy was unprofessional, promoter says
SPRINGFIELD – The promoter of Monday's Soulja Boy rap concert at Springfield's Prairie Capital Convention Center says the performer put on a "dynamite show" but exhibited "unprofessional and amateur adolescent behavior" when he invited the crowd to rush the stage.

"There was no way that the police or all of the security guards could do anything," said Terry Byrd of Springfield, president of Off Da Chain Entertainment. "It was almost like somebody fired the starting gun at the Boston Marathon.

"I personally want to apologize to anyone who got hurt or feel that they were done wrong," Byrd said. "But it was out of my control."

While some people got "crushed and stampeded," Byrd said, it did not appear there were serious injuries. About 1,500 people rushed the stage, he said.

Lauren Harbison, 16, a junior at Springfield High School, said she was next to a fence that marked the VIP area.

I got pushed into that," she said, adding that another girl fell on her. "I couldn't get up until she got up, but she couldn't get up."

Springfield offers $100 for guns
SPRINGFIELD – The city of Springfield hopes to get guns off city streets by offering a $100 debit card for every gun turned in at a buyback Saturday.

Mayor Tim Davlin said officials will have about 150 cards available.

"We don't know if we're going to get one gun or 150 guns," he said. "But even if we get one gun we think that's successful."

After all the guns are collected, serial numbers will be checked by police for weapons that were reported stolen or used in crimes. If they were stolen, police will try to return them to the rightful owners. Others will be kept as evidence, put into use by the police department or destroyed at a foundry.

Caregivers accused of ‘negligence’

PEKIN — What started out as a picnic on July 11 ended with the death of an East Peoria man, and a coroner’s jury is asking for an investigation into what it calls “extreme negligence” by his caregivers.

Dwayne Mann, 32, suffered from Down syndrome, severe mental disabilities and was a resident at East Peoria Parc, a not-for-profit organization serving the developmentally disabled.

Mann was unable to communicate the fact he was choking on food he ate while on a picnic in Peoria with three other residents and three Parc employees, who assumed he was “throwing a fit,” or misbehaving, said Tazewell County Coroner Dennis Conover on Thursday.

One employee wanted to call 911 for help but was told not to by the other two, according to Conover.

The Office of Inspector General oversees facilities such as Parc throughout the state.

A coroner’s jury ruled Mann’s death accidental, the result of “extreme neglect by caregivers” and recommended more training and competency testing for Parc employees.

Ex-football star gets new judge

PEKIN — A former All-Pro NFL lineman requested a different judge to hear the case of gun and drug charges against him in Tazewell County Circuit Court.

Bill Maas, 45, appeared Thursday in court, where his request to substitute Judge Stephen Kouri was granted.

Maas faces two counts of possession of a controlled substance and one count of unlawful use of a weapon stemming from a traffic stop July 6 in East Peoria.

Maas was scheduled for an arraignment Thursday, but that will be handled by the next judge who is assigned the case.

Sarah J. Murphy, 27, who was with Maas during the traffic stop, also faces two counts of possession of a controlled substance. Both Maas and Murphy are from Lee’s Summit, Mo. Kouri will also take over Murphy’s case.

No new court dates were set.

Mason city woman Sues animal shelter
HAVANA — A Mason City woman is suing a local animal shelter for putting her dog to sleep without her consent.

According to Mason County court documents, Melissa Sechrist filed suit against the Teheran dog pound in September for euthanizing her dog. Sechrist is seeking $4,250.

“I don’t want to say anything until after we go to court Nov. 9, but they had no right putting my dog down,” Sechrist said.

It remains unclear why the dog was euthanized or how the shelter obtained the animal.

Representatives from the shelter could not be reached for comment.

Mock convention at WIU
MACOMB — Crowds cheered, delegates argued and a Western Illinois University professor dressed as Uncle Sam acted as a cheerleader as a mock presidential election, perhaps the largest run on a college campus, continued Thursday.

“The Road to the White House Starts at Western Illinois University” kicked off this week. The Democratic and Republican national conventions were held Thursday.

The mock election culminates Nov. 5 with a presidential campaign and Electoral College vote in Western Hall.

In addition to campaign workers, the students, faculty, staff and alumni from WIU role play delegates, the media, strategists and Electoral College members.

Project director and political science department Chairman Rick Hardy said nearly 4,000 WIU students will take part. Besides political science students, students from many departments will take part.

Some students participate simply to volunteer, Hardy said, while others are doing so for a class or for extra credit or because they belong to the college’s political party clubs.
Hardy organized similar events while teaching at the University of Iowa in 1976 and the University of Missouri in 1988.